Chasing Cool 5: Picture and a Pair

Just read a great book called, Chasing Cool. Thought I’d share a few ideas from it and process them out loud …

Antonio Bertone, the global director of brand management at Puma, “Nobody has a magic eight-ball… You have to have a picture in your head and a pair of balls.” Sorry if this offends, but it’s just too good to ignore.

“Nobody has a magic eight-ball.” If we did, we’d never miss on our guesses, never have the possibility of failing, and also not really have a need for faith.

“You have to have a picture in your head…” As I mentioned in a recent post, I think too many of us have someone else’s picture in our heads. The sad reality is that probably a lot of us just don’t have any picture. We stopped dreaming a long time ago, we got bored, complacent, stuck in a rut. And so the picture in our head is … well, there just isn’t really a picture in our hear.

“… and a pair of balls.” This is the problem for the rest of us. Those of us who do have a picture. We have this vision of what could be, we just lack the rocks to go for it. We’re filled with “What if” questions: What if the funding doesn’t come in? What if I heard God wrong? What if people laugh at me? What if no one shows up? What if I fail? Somehow we miss the fact that the greatest failure isn’t to decide to try something and not succeed at it … it’s to decide to try nothing and succeed at that. (Isn’t that what Jesus was trying to teach us with the parable of the talents?)

So … where are lacking balls? What is God calling you to do, but you’re too afraid to move forward? Actually, let me restate that: What might God be calling you to do, but you’re too afraid to move forward?